Slow websites lose credibility and user interest, and are even judged less attractive than comparable sites. Here's how to zoom it up.

Scirra, a two-man startup, has done great research on easy (relatively) ways to increase website responsiveness. Details like page size matter, since larger pages take longer to transmit and load. Scirra believes Content Management Systems bloat the code and slow down response. So do social media buttons.

Loading JavaScript last in a page helps, as does keeping JavaScript in external files if possible (they'll get cached). Adjust images to use the smallest file size that maintains the level of quality you need. And remember that cookies both annoy users and require more requests, which slow performance.

In the 1980s, Texas Instruments did an internal study and found that any computer delay longer than a half-second broke the user's train of thought. Do you think our attention spans are even shorter now? If so, comment below. Quickly.